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On Facebook, a lot of authors host Book Launch Parties to celebrate the release of their new books. These launch parties can be an all-day event of the author talking about their book, answering questions, and giving tons of tips, or it can be just whatever the author wants. What happens most of the time is that the author will invite other authors to come and take an hour of the event to promote their own work. This is called an Author Takeover Event, and the event can be anywhere from one to three days long.

Author Takeover Events are helpful because every author involved already has their own platform and loyal fans who jump at the opportunity to see one of their favorite authors participating in such an event. Also the fans may be curious as to meet new undiscovered authors in the same genre. So this works in favor for everyone.

So what do you, as an author, do in such an event? You usually have one hour to talk about yourself/your book. Sometimes two hours, but usually it’s just one. That may seem like a LONG time, but really it’s not. Let me break it down for you.

An hour is 60 minutes.

12 x 5 = 60, so you can post every five minutes which results in a total of twelve posts. Five minutes feels like a long time, but it’s just enough for people to Like/Comment on the posts without being TOO long a wait. I will break that down.

So you have ten posts. You want the following:

Intro as you an author (who you are as a human being, something for the audience to relate to you)

Intro to your book(s) (what your book is about)

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

Post 5

Post 6

Post 7

Post 8

Post 9

Conclusion (usually includes links to your books/blog/website/social media and thanking the MAIN host for inviting you to participate)

As you noticed Posts 1-9 have no description. These are the posts you need to get creative about. So really, instead of TWELVE posts that you need to worry about making up, you need to just worry about NINE. The two intros and the conclusion tend stay pretty consistent although you can change them up however often you want. Just depends on how often you participate in these events. However, it’s the seven posts in the middle that you need to focus on.

So, what are some things you can post for those seven posts? Whatever you want. I have seen the following:

Paragraphs describing different characters from the stories (I recommend one character per post)

Pictures (of characters or locations or of the author or author’s pets, etc)

Facebook Live video

Giveaways

AND SO MUCH MORE

There really isn’t limit to what you can do. Be creative, professional, organized, and engaged with the audience, and you can do whatever you want. It’s an opportunity for you to talk about YOUR BOOK for one hour!! That doesn’t happen a lot, so seize the opportunity.

Now though, when you participate in an Author Takeover Event, things can get crazy pretty fast, so you may want to be organized beforehand before diving into it. You see, what happens is that you make a post and publish it, and you plan to wait a few minutes before publishing another post. However, after you post something new, someone may comment on your previous post. You turn your attention to it to reply, and someone else comments too. Next thing you know, you only posted one thing and fifteen minutes have passed, and people are wondering if you’re going to post anything else.

In order to stay on top of your posting and replying to any comments, I recommend you have all your posts written ahead of time, so all you have to do is copy/paste. Now, I use Scrivener, so I organize everything in one file. It looks like this:

As you can see, each document is labeled according to a specific time. This is because for that specific Author Takeover Event, my slot is from 4-5PM CST. Instead of me trying to mentally multiple by 5 during the event, I just titled each post with the time I want to publish them. This is one less thing I have to worry about later.

Here’s another organizational trick I do to keep up with my posts and everyone’s comments. As soon as I publish a new post, I go to the time stamp right beneath my name on the Facebook post, and I right-click then ’Open In New Tab’. This opens that specific post in a new tab. When I post another one, I do the same thing, opening a separate tab for it as well, and I keep doing it. This way, when I get a notification of comment, I can check the notifications to determine which post it is, and then go to the tab that contains that post rather than scrolling up and down trying to find the right post.

I have one main tab open, which is where I publish each new post. I don’t change anything with this tab. As soon as I publish a post, I open a new tab with that post then ignore that tab. I then go to my notes, copy the next post, and go to the main tab, paste the post there, and have it all primed and ready to go when it’s time to post. Once I’ve done that, I can skip around the different tabs I have opened and converse with everyone without missing a beat.

Now remember, all of these are merely recommendations. Everyone does everything differently. There is no right or wrong way to do it. If you’ve never done an Author Takeover Event, this is simply a guideline you may follow. Adapt and adjust it according to your own preferences. Pay attention to any rules the MAIN host of the event may have. Be professional but also approachable. And most of all have fun!

The truth about self-publishing is simple: it’s hard work, and it can cost a lot of money. What’s the advantage? You, the author, maintains absolute control over every element of your story, book, and marketing. If you know what you’re doing, this is a good thing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, this can be overwhelming but not impossible. Let’s break it down.

Write the novel

Revise the book

Self-edit

Beta readers

Revise

Edit/proofread

Format

Bookcover

Publish

Promote

The first two parts you do on your own, and #2 you might do multiple times. Once you’ve done that, then do #3 on your own, and again you might do this multiple times before moving on to #4 where you allow other people to read it and give you feedback. Once you get that feedback, you go back into the story, revise and self-edit accordingly, and then you send it on to an editor who checks for any errors. Once you’ve fixed your manuscript based on what they found, you send it to a proofreader, who looks for anything out of place.

When that is done and you have once more edited your novel, you can begin the formatting process or you can send it to someone to format for you. Around the same time, you’d want to contact your graphic artist to begin a cover for your book.

Once the book is formatted and the cover is completed, you are ready to send it to whichever self-publishing venue you wish. And then the promotional stage really kicks off although even before this, you should have already begun building your fanbase through Author Facebook Page and any other social media means you wish to use. You can find more of that topic in the post discussing ‘The Etiquette to Self-Promotion’.

Now though, let’s discuss costs, breaking it down in the steps above:

Write the novel: free

Revise the book: free

Self-edit: free

Beta readers: free

Revise: free

Edit/proofread: $100-$700, depending on the length of your novel

Format: $50-$100 (sometimes more)

Bookcover: $80-$400, depending on the artist

Publish: free-$$$$, depending on the publisher you use. Kindle Direct is free. Draft2Digital is free, CreateSpace is free although it is about $10 for a proof of your book, which you look over for any errors before publication. WARNING: avoid any publisher that requires you pay a few hundred or a few thousand dollars for them to publish it. You will not have absolute control over your book. They may offer to help you promote it, but usually it’s not worth it.

Promote: free-$$$$, depending on what you use. Word-of-mouth is free. Posting on Facebook and Twitter and on your blog and website is all free. Using Thunderclap and HeadTalker campaigns are free. Paying for ads on Facebook or Twitter costs. Some sites will promote your book (especially if it’s at a discounted price lis $0.99 or free) for anything from $5 to $15 all the way up to $200—depending on which site you use and which package you use. Other sites can cost up to $3,000 or so because they take promotions to a much bigger level. I wouldn’t recommend those unless your budget can handle that expense.

Reviewers: free—$$. First, let’s note that you should never pay someone to leave a review. Never buy reviews! Why does it cost at all then? It’s simple really, but let me explain why it could be free first. If friends or family agree to review the book for you, you can send them a free copy of your ebook. This is entirely free but with the understanding that they will leave a review. If you have to send them a copy of your book, there is the cost of shipping to take into consideration, which can be about $3-$20, depending on where you’re sending it. Now, some sites offer review services, and they charge about $15-$40 depending on the package you get. However, with this, you must understand, you are not paying the reviewers for their reviews. You are paying the business, which has bought together and organized all these reviewers and will send your book to them instead of you having to do it all yourself, for the service. There is a difference. Please keep that in mind. You want honest reviews. If you pay for reviews and the person doesn’t even read the book, Amazon can crack down on that, and that will have dire consequences for you.

Copies of Your Book: $10-$$$ This depends on how many pages your book is and how many books you purchase in a bulk. You will get an author discount, but then there is shipping as well. All of this are expenses to keep in mind.

Author Swag/Merchandise: $5-$$$ Bookmarks, business cards, magnets, keychains, charms, gift cards, pens, notebooks—basically anything you sell or give away in order to draw more interest to your book. The big secret is, as a self-published author, if you want any swag made, you need to put in the time and money to have it made. You can use sites such as Vistaprint for bookmarks, business cards, and a few other stuff, but then you can check out Fiverr or Etsy for unique ideas. All of this is more money out of pocket.

Of course none of this mentions the expense of travel should you decide to do a book tour or attend conventions in order to sell your book. Publishing and selling a book can become quite expensive, but this is why it is important to budget. If you have a good handle on the finances, you will come to see what works for you and what doesn’t, and when it’s time to promote again, you can put into action only what you have determined benefited you.

Fan fiction is a controversial topic. Some people say are totally against it while others are absolutely for it. Let’s first identify what fan fiction is.

When someone creates a piece of fiction, if a person takes that work and writes something based off it (keeping the names of characters, locations, and events), this is fan fiction. It could be set in an AU (Alternative Universe, which means the events of the canon story either didn’t take place or had different outcomes), and it could include OC (Original Characters—creations of the fan fiction author). These stories are written in the universe of the original story. If you’re a Star Wars fan, and you wished Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme got married instead, that would be a fan fiction story in the Star Wars universe. If you wanted to find out what was meant when Black Widow said, “It’s like Budapest all over again,” and Hawkeye responded, “You and I remember Budapest very differently,” you could write an Avenger fan fic based on that to explore it.

What’s the catch? You cannot sell this work or attempt to profit off of it. Since you do not own the rights of the original story, you can’t do that. However, you can post it on sites like www.fanfiction.net or so forth. When you do this, fans of the original story will see it, read it, and likely comment. This feedback is useful for your journey into becoming a writer and helps you hone your skills.

One of the issues about writing your own original story as the first full-length novel you ever write is you may not know how to develop characters well, you might not have a full handle on description or scene setting or dialogue, and on top of that you have to create an entire world. If you’ve never done that before, it can be daunting. This makes writing your own novel all the more difficult.

If you write fan fiction first, you don’t have to worry about creating whole new worlds or characters. It’s like a pre-set story for you to just fill in the blank and twist however you want. You already know the characters because of the story/book/film/show, and you can readily imagine them in your mind. You already have an understanding of their world, so it’s easy to grasp. You won’t have to worry about all those fundamentals of a story while you’re trying to learn your own writing style. The foundation is already there. All you need to worry about is perfecting the specific elements (character development, dialogue, description, plot structure, etc).

The more you write, the more you’ll start flexing your writing muscles. It’ll likely start with you taking the characters to unfamiliar places, and this gives you the chance to create an original setting in a safe environment. As this becomes easy, you begin introducing more major original characters into the cast. Eventually those original characters completely replace the fan fiction characters, and as you add more twists and turns and get further and further from the original source of the story, you’ll realize you have something that’s totally different from the original story. This is where you can begin writing your own original story.

When this happens, you won’t be so stressed out about all the different elements of writing because you already have a good handle on them. Instead, you can press on and write your own original piece of fiction, and you have a good chance of publishing it.

Consider fan fiction the playground or training arena for writing. You can’t sell the work, so you don’t have to worry about promoting it. Instead, you are writing it for you (and maybe a few fans you pick up along the way). You are growing as a writer, and you learn so many lessons in a safe environment. Once you start breaking the mold and flexing your writing muscles as creating your own worlds, the world becomes a scary place, but you’re ready for it.

This is why I recommend writing fan fiction if you’re a beginning writer. Of course, some people may view it a waste of time, and I understand that. However, if you’re struggling with writing, writing fan fiction is an option you have and should consider.

Thunderclap is a promotional opportunity not limited to writers but can be for events, artists of all kinds, and anything really where you need to get word out. There are different packages offered, but the basic one is free, so it is no cost for you or anyone who supports you, but what exactly is Thunderclap?

Before I explain what Thunderclap is, let me illustrate what social media is. The internet is full of noise of people posting about every detail of their lives and every thought they have. It’s a loud and noisy place. It’s really hard to get word out. I often compare it to being in a crowd and saying something. You can yell all you want, but if you’re the only one saying whatever it is you’re saying, no one is going to hear you. Sure, some might notice your attempt and look at you strangely, but they’re not quite sure what it is you said because of all the noise of the crowd. However, if a bunch of people start saying the same thing, people take notice. This is where Thunderclap comes in.

The important factor with Thunderclap is the social reach of everyone who supports a campaign. Using Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, everyone has a different group of followers/friends. When someone supports a Thunderclap campaign, they’re allowing Thunderclap to post on their social media platforms (you can choose which platform you want used) a one-time post written by the creator of the campaign. This is posted only once, and that is on a specific day and time set by the creator of the campaign. In other words, if you sign up with Thunderclap to support someone’s campaign, Thunderclap will not continue to post random things on your platforms. It will only post whatever you support. Let me break it down:

James’s social reach is 489 people.

Kasey’s social reach is 952 people.

Nathan’s social reach is 1,204 people

And Sandra’s social reach is 1,321 people

Now, Hannah is the creator of the campaign, and her social reach is 692. She is friends with James, Kasey, Nathan, and Sandra, and when Hannah begins a Thunderclap campaign, all four of those support her campaign. This gives her a social reach of 4,658—a number she wouldn’t have had if it wasn’t for everyone’s support.

When you create a Thunderclap campaign, you have to choose the number of supporters required in order for the campaign to be launched. You also set the date by which you must have that number (or not) for it to be launched. The least amount of time recommended is two weeks. If you fail to get the number of supporters you chose within the timeframe that you chose, the campaign will not be launched at all. The least amount of supporters you can choose is 100. The next amount is 250. And it goes up from there.

Now, how do you make a Thunderclap campaign successful so that you reach the number of supporters you need in order for the campaign to be launched? First off, share it with your family and friends and ask them if they’d support it. Don’t expect too many of them to do it because they’re unfamiliar with Thunderclap and may have some reservations, so you will need to look elsewhere. There are Thunderclap groups on Facebook that you can join and post your campaign there, but it’s a ‘clap for a clap’, meaning they’ll support yours if you support theirs.

However, the most successful way I’ve found is to have a good support group around you prior to any promotions. For instance, I have a Facebook group of almost 500 people (at this time). They’re fans of mine, and they’re big supporters for what I do. When I discovered Thunderclap and created my own campaign, I shared it in that group, and I tagged a bunch of people I knew would back my campaign. Within 6 hours, I had reached my goal of 100 supporters for my campaign although I had a month before my campaign went life. Once you’ve reached your goal, you can overshoot it and continue getting more and more supporters. The main trick is informing people what Thunderclap actually is and asking for volunteers that you could tag when you want your campaign to be supported. Once you get a list of people, create your campaign then share it, tagging all those people who volunteered, and encourage them to share as well.

You have to push this. You can’t just sit by and hope that someone notices. Social media is far too fluid, and posts sink into oblivion all the time. If you want it to work, you need to work it. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. When I’m pushing a Thunderclap campaign, I make it like a game or a sport. I aim for 10 supporters at a time, and each time we get more supporters, I announce it in the thread, “We’re at 45 now! We need 5 more to 50! We can do it!!” This gets people excited, and they want to be a part of the movement which makes it succeed.

NaNoWriMo—I cannot believe I hadn’t written a post about this yet! Allow me to remedy that immediately. First we’ll discuss what NaNoWriMo is, what sort of things you can write, and what it means to ‘win’, but then I’ll mention some tricks of the trade.

NaNoWriMo stands for the (inter)National Novel Writing Month, which is a free challenge that takes place every November. There are two branches of this—the official NaNoWriMo site and the Young Writers Program. The official site challenges all writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days, but in the Young Writers Program writers are able to set their own reasonable goals for the month. Many schools have adopted the Young Writers Program into their system to encourage young writers to write since the challenge takes place during the school year, and the site offers many tools for educators. The official site is much more independent and had forums where individuals can interact and regions so people in the same area can get together and write.

Now though, with that introduction out of the way, what are you allowed to write? What can you count for the 50,000 words? It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, script, blog posts—whatever you want it to be (although if it is poetry or a script, you’ll have to write a lot to reach the 50K word count goal), but it has to be written starting November 1st. You can’t just use some old writing you’ve done before just to reach the word count goal. Technically that’s cheating, and yes, even if you did that, no one would ever know—except you, and it’s totally up to you.

How does one win the challenge of NaNoWriMo? What chance do you have to win since there are over several hundred thousand writers participating? Well, good news is everyone has the chance to win because you’re not competing against everyone else. You’re competing against yourself. If you reach your word count goal within the 30 days, you’re gifted with a WINNER’S certificate, which you can print out and brag about your achievement. You’re also given discount codes for numerous writing tools (Scrivener, Aeon Timeline, Createspace, to name a few), but mainly you earn bragging rights and the accomplished feelings that you can write that many words within that timeframe.

Usually on November 25th, validation opens on the site. If you’ve written your 50K words, you copy/paste everything into the validation box, allow the computer to calculate the words just to verify the word count, and if it concludes you indeed have 50K words (or more), it will send you on to the Winner’s page. No one will read what you wrote. No one will see it. No one can steal it. Note: sometimes the program you use to write in may have a different word count than the validation of NaNoWriMo. It’s always a good thing to write a thousand or two thousand words over just to be safe.

Now though, with all the official stuff out of the way, just how do you tackle NaNo? Some people plot their stories ahead of time very carefully. Other people completely wing it. There is no right or wrong way to do it. There is only the way that works—and that way is different for everyone. However, it is a good idea to know what story you’re going to write before November comes.

There are 30 days in November, and the calculations have been done that to reach 50K in 30 days, you need to write 1,667 words a day. Personally, I like round numbers better, so I aim for 2,000 words a day. Depending on my speed of writing that day, I may split the 2,000 words into two sections: one thousand at one time and then another thousand another time, or—if I’m having a slower day or just a busy day with real life—I will split the 2,000 words into four parts: 500 words for each section.

When you’re considering NaNo, and if you have a busy life and lots of commitments, it’s a good idea to know how many words you can type in 15 minutes. This will give you a general idea how long it’d take you to reach your word count that day. For instance, it takes me 15 minutes to write 500 words, so that means it will take me an hour to write 2,000 words, so technically I only need an hour a day in order to complete NaNo. Figure out your pace ahead of time and stick to it as best you can.

NaNo Tip: You can play tricks on your own mind when you’re doing NaNo. Say your goal is to write 2,000 words a day, but the first day you write 2,500 words. Technically, this means you’re 500 words ahead. The following day though you could get away with only writing 1,500 words which brings you total word count to 4,000. That’s a good even number, right? But then in the evening before you go to bed, you hammer out a few hundred words just to get ahead and bring your word count to 4,500. It looks and feels as though you are ahead, but in reality you only wrote 2,000 words that day. You have that little cushion in case a day just totally gets out of control leaving you with little time to write other than the 1,500 you wrote earlier. Just a little trick that might help!

However, if your region isn’t very active (or even if it is active), and you really want more immediate interaction as well as *word sprint/word wars, you may join the Facebook group of NaNoWriMo Participants here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NaNoWriMoparticipants/ It is an impressive group of over 21K people, and it is very active, resourceful, and encouraging though it has its moments of insanity. This group is active all year round.

If you’re interested in a more quiet but still active and inspirational group, you’re welcome to join my own Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuthorKellyBlanchard/ It is there where I post a lot of pictures that may inspire scenes in your story or even your characters and much more and try to encourage writers.

All in all, NaNoWriMo started as a small writing challenge, but now it is an international writing community, and many NaNo books have been published. You may find an incomplete list of those published works here: http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos.

Word of warning though, just because you complete NaNoWriMo, that doesn’t mean your book is ready for publication. It might not even be finished. This is where the community of NaNoWriMo off-site is useful because it’s around all-year and is a tremendous support and resource and can help you every step of the way.

On a random note, it is possible to reach 50K words in a week. It’s even possible to reach 50K in three days, and yes, as impossible as it may sound, it is possible to reach 50K words in one day. I’ve seen it done though I would not recommend it.

And that is NaNoWriMo. It is a free competition though it’s encouraged that people donate to support it because it is free, and it’s an awesome community. If you’ve always wanted to write but just never took the time, this might be exactly what you need to get you started. For those who always write and love writing, this is the one time when writing isn’t such an isolated task although throughout the year there are two challenges known as *Camp NaNo, but that has its own unique traits. NaNoWriMo is a fun and creative event. Every writer should participate in it at least once just for the experience.

Note:

*Word sprint/word war: These are challenges writers present one another. A select time is set (usually 15 minutes), and you have to write as many words as possible in that pocket of time. You’re racing against time, against each other, and against yourself to see who can write the most words written. It’s just a game we writers play with each other to motivate one another to write. This is extremely useful when you’re begin in your word count and want to get caught up.

*Camp NaNo: Usually takes place during the months of April and July (although the months have changed in the past, so checking the site during spring/summer is a good idea: http://campnanowrimo.org/ ) Unlike the official contest, with Camp NaNo, you may set your own goal with word count. Also, you are given the chance to be in a virtual camp with fellow writers where you’re given a chatroom where you can chat, brainstorm, and keep track of each other’s progress.

Several weeks ago, I introduced a new style of author and character interviews—the Interactive Author Interview and the Interactive Character Interview. In this new style, I do away with the traditional list of questions but instead invite the author into a fictional setting for a comfortable, friendly chat. In the character interview, the author takes us into his world for the interview, and we get to meet and observe the character being interviewed in his own environment. This style makes both the author and the character more real, and here are a few things people said about their experience being interview this way:

“I’ve never been a fan of interviews, but once I was warmed up in towards the beginning of Kelly’s interview, I had a blast!” – Ted Covey

“It was a pleasure to have gone through the process with Kelly…If one has the opportunity, I would strongly recommend other authors set up time to be interviewed by her.” – Daryl Ball

“Kelly Blanchard’s story style interviews are no end of fun and fascination.” – Ryan T. Nelson

“Interview with Kelly Blanchard is set apart because interacting with her didn’t feel one bit like I was answering a staid questionnaire.” – Vibhuti Bhandarkar

“Kelly’s author interviews are a fascinating experience for any author.” – Valerie Seimas

And there is much more authors have said about the experience, but I realized there was one other group of people whose opinion of these interviews are vital—the readers. While this style of interviews solves many problems with the standard author and character interviews and thus making the process all the more enjoyable, what would the readers think? So I asked for volunteers.

I took an author I hadn’t interviewed yet—Ronnie Virdi, author of ‘Grave Beginnings‘. I interviewed him with both styles of author interviews then used both styles of character interviews with his character. Then I presented both sets of interviews to 23 volunteer of readers, and I asked them which style they preferred and why. Here are the results:

17 people voted the Interactive Interviews for both the author and character interviews.

6 people voted the Traditional InterviewsOf those 6 people:

2 were leaning towards the Interactive Interview for the author interview

4 voted Traditional Interview for the author interview, but they chose Interactive Interview for the character interview.

Out of 23 people, 21 people voted Interactive Interviews for the character interviews.

Only 2 people voted for the Traditional Interviews for both author interview & character interview.

To view that as percentages, it would look like this:

Here is what readers said about their experience reading these interviews:

“I like the interactive style better. Nothing draws another writer in more than a story, and it gives you more to think about than a bulleted list of questions.” – Kelly Blechertas

“The interactive one gives a lot more feel for the author as a person. It feels like a more intimate and friendly exchange, and it gives me a sense of their potential writing voice.” – Megan Reed

“I enjoyed the interactive interview more. The regular interview was informative but felt like I was reading it in a magazine or watching it on TV; whereas the interactive engaged not only my intellectual side, but spoke to that part of me that gets lost in stories.” – G. Scot Phillips

“Interactive interview by far, most prominently for the fact that once he gets into the world, it is easier to phrase the answers in his own comfortable way, complete with mood defining subtext. The whole mechanism is comfy.” – Jack Frost

“The traditional interview felt all clinical, I don’t really like those. I read interviews to “meet” people. I definitely liked the interactive better because it felt more like meeting a person.” – Adrienne Devine

Now, not everyone liked the Interactive, and here are some reasonings of those who preferred the traditional:

“I prefer the traditional question and answer. In the interactive one, I find myself searching for the questions and answers, ignoring the rest.” – Kim Hutchinson Halcomb

“The traditional one. It could be that its just what I’m used to, but I had a hard time paying attention kinda in the interactive one.” – Sara Lucinda

“If I’m being honest, I am partial to the traditional. I’m not really sure why. There’s nothing wrong with the interactive, it’s fun and engaging, but I think I just prefer the more traditional interview.” – Sabrina Danielle

“I guess it would depend on WHY I was reading the interview. I definitely felt like I learned more about Ronnie’s writing from the traditional interview though I may have gotten a better sense of who he was from the interactive.” – Valerie Seimas

“Depends upon my mood honestly. To read the interactive one – the one set like a story – I have to be in the mood and prepared for it. Knowing what style/what to expect, there will be times where I am more receptive to it. If I were to just be gleaming for information, I like the style of the traditional one.”– Jennifer Ruvalcaba

So, what is the verdict? Among authors and readers, the Interactive Interviews are largely popular, but there is still a place for the Traditional Interviews. The traditional style interviews are readily available to anyone who wants to conduct interviews. Sample questions are just a Google search away. However, the Interactive approach is much more involved and time-consuming to conduct because each experience is tailored to each author, but it is an option for those who just want to have a more fun interviewing experience.

To read some Interactive Interviews, you may find them on my other blog, “Meeting with the Muse“. If you’ve published a book and would like me to interview you using this interactive style of interviews, and if you would like the interviews to be promoted on my site, leave a comment, and I’ll be in touch with you.

Writing physical action in stories—how do we do this? When you’re writing, you write multiple kinds of sentences—narrative, dialogue, description (when it comes to the setting and the environment), but also physical action. How much of this action should you include? When and how often should you include it? Why should you even include it?

Let’s address the ‘why’ first. Our characters are physical beings—they may not be human, and sometimes they may be supernatural, but they still possess the ability to move and interact with their environment and others around them. This interaction then moves the story onward, but it also reveals something about each character. Their mere action can add immediate depth to their personality.

When should this action be insert into a story? Well, my question to you would be: when does the character move? I’m not saying you need to record every little physical movement they make, but there are subtle ones which speak volumes of an individual in any situation. For instance, let’s say you have a character who reluctantly committed a crime, and the police as questioning him—not quite realizing he is the criminal—and they ask a specific question that makes him uncomfortable, so he reaching up and rubs the back of his neck as he shrugs and offers an answer. That mere movement says tells us he’s uncomfortable—that there’s something more beneath the surface. Any eagle-eyed detective would zero in on this and try to slowly corner the man into revealing what makes him so uneasy. Further body language such as nostrils flaring and eyes narrowing indicate to anger while increased blinking hints at something they’re trying to keep hidden. Shifting eyes are uneasiness with the situation while sudden stillness in their bodies and eyes deliberately locking with the detectives and calmly answering each question could be an indication of lying. All of these little physical actions build character. You need to determine who your character is and what he’s feeling at that moment. Is he frightened? Angry? Upset? Nonchalant? All of these will have different body language, and when you use these actions in a scene, the reader will pick up on it, probably not completely understand the exact meaning behind the movement, but they know something is up and can come to conclusions.

So, one good place to put these small physical movements is during a conversation. As an experiment, remove the dialogue tag (said, answered, asked, replied, etc) and insert body language because dialogue tags are redundant as I explained in a previous posts (here and here), but the body language captures the personality of the character, and this is vital for a story.

Now just how much of these physical movements should you include? As much as is important to the story. There is a delicate balance—much like any description in a story. I can’t tell you exactly how much or how little to use because you will have to determine that for yourself. There is no magic formula. However, a few things to keep in mind when trying to determine what physical movements you should include:

the main character: their personality, their mood in that moment of the story, their connection to others in the current scene, and anything they may not want revealed.

the other characters in the scene and their connection to one another

the environment (physical setting)

the atmosphere (mood of the setting/characters)

If you think too hard about this, it will seem daunting. Rather, try to imagine it like a scene in a movie. You can visualize it clearly in your head. Everyone moves at all times even if it’s simply narrowing eyes or taking a deep breath or clenching the jaw. Does this mean you should show every movement of all the characters? No. The ‘camera’ (the character through whom we’re viewing the scene) doesn’t focus on all the characters at once. Whomever we’re looking at is whose body language and physical action you should be concerned with. Now, say you’re focusing on one character but there’s another character behind the one you’re focusing on, so you can see both, but you’re not really focusing on the second character. However, that character in the background could wave his arms or silently start mocking behind the back of the first character. This would draw your attention, and you can show it, but it’s up to you whether or not you let the first character become aware of what’s happening behind his back. If you don’t let him know, that’s all right. It’s just a funny instance that reveals to your reader what that other character really thinks of that first character.

Basic things to think of when trying to determine what physical action to use:

Does it reveal something about the character’s personality? (do they experience a flash of anger when they should be unaffected?)

Do the actions arrange the characters in the room in a manner important for the following actions and scenes? (a character may enter a room and begin a conversation with the other character in the room but walk around to the window to look out. Several things could happen. a) the character at the window could be shot by a sniper, b) someone comes dashing into the room announcing there’s an emergency, so both character race out of the room, but the one furtherest from the door is a little further behind. An ambush could befall them, but because that one character a further behind than expected, he might be able to turn the situation on its head…or maybe he’s the one behind the ambush).

Do the actions add and show necessary tension? (two characters agree to meet for a talk, but they don’t trust each other. They enter the room but then walk around each other—orbiting one another. Sometimes this may be obvious, but other times it may be more subtle as in one character going to the bookshelf in the middle of the conversation and pretend to skim over the book titles while engaging in conversation. The other character goes to the bar on the other side of the room and pours himself a drink. The character at the bookshelf then goes to the window, so the character at the bar moves toward the door.)

Does the action add to the flow of the story or slow it down? (adding every single TINY detail will bog down the story whereas adding only the details important to show what the character is feeling in that moment leading up to the next big action pushing it forward.)

Of course there are many other things to keep in mind when writing this, but I can’t think of everything. However, throughout all this, one important fact to remember: this take practice to master. Don’t think about it too much. Don’t over-worry about it. Be aware of it and try to apply what I’ve said. The more you do it, the easier it’ll become for you, so be patient and don’t stress out. You will do well.